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May 22, 2009

Mother no fan of son’s school haircut

by Sam Savage

A woman in the Canadian city of Thunder Bay says she was shocked to learn a teacher's assistant at her son's school cut his long hair without permission.

The concerned mother, whose identity was not reported, said her 7-year-old son informed her he lost nearly 4 inches of his chin-length hair when a teacher's assistant became an impromptu barber at his Ontario school, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reports.

I said, 'Why did she do this? Did she say anything?' the mother said. And he said, 'No, and after she cut my hair, she took me by the shoulders and forced me to stand in front of the mirror. She made me stand there and said look at you now.'

A Lakehead Public School Board representative confirmed the hair-cutting incident took place and the teaching assistant had been suspended.

Meanwhile, authorities have decided not to press charges, a decision opposed by attorney Julian Falconer, who represents the boy's family.

We have a classic example of the vulnerabilities of a 7-year-old being taken advantage (of) by someone with a pair of scissors who lifted that child on a stool and proceeded to violate the child, Falconer told the CBC.